Habitat seeks to salvage city residents' throw-aways for store

Wednesday

Amador Rojas and Corey Hoskins heaved a discarded mattress and box spring into a Habitat for Humanity truck on North 17th Street Wednesday. Next, they drove to North Fourth Street to get a couch.

The scheduled stops were the last of the day for the large-item pickup program, a service funded by the city of Springfield for residents to get rid of furniture, appliances, bed frames and other household items free of charge.

Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County started a one-year, $250,000 contract last week with the city for the program that allows residents to have up to six items collected per year over two visits per year. Habitat already has received more than 300 calls to schedule pickups.

“Hopefully some of the items can be salvaged and sold in our store,” said the not-for-profit’s executive director, Colleen Stone. “The prospect of keeping items out of the landfill is the sub-mission of our (store). The mission is to generate funds to build houses.”

The organization builds affordable housing in the county using volunteer labor and donated materials. Selling used household items at its store, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore at 2744 S. Sixth St., provides additional money for materials.

Landfill last resort

Partnering with a nonprofit is a new strategy for the city’s waste-removal program, said Adena Rivas, community programs coordinator for the public works department. The city previously contracted with local garbage collectors.

“It was more looking toward an outfit that looks at refurbishing, reusing and then recycling,” Rivas said. “And then the last resort being the landfill.”

Public works director Mark Mahoney said he’s seen the usage and cost of the service slowly grow in the last few years, a result of better marketing efforts by the city and growing demand.

One of the goals is to cut down on fly dumping, people discarding old furniture and other garbage on curbs or in empty lots, Mahoney said.

Partnering with an organization that aims to keep these items out of a landfill is a good thing, he said.

“It heads in a more sustainable direction,” Mahoney said. “They were the low bidder, too.”

The city funds the program with a $3-per-household recycling fee, which doubled from $1.50 last summer, tacked on to monthly utility bills. Revenue from the fee also provides money for the city’s electronic recycling, hazardous waste and yard waste collection programs.

Reducing waste

Rojas and Hoskins took the mattress and box spring to the landfill, but returned to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore with a dryer and an old basketball hoop they retrieved earlier.

Employees at the Restore will try to repair the dryer and fix up the hoop in order to sell them.

In the last three days, Rojas said they’ve brought back a king-size bed frame, a door and a garden trellis.

Anne Logue, a member of Sustainable Springfield, said the partnership with the city and Habitat for Humanity shows a commitment to being more environmentally friendly.

“Habitat for Humanity is one of our best resources for reducing waste, so any kind of large-item pickup is definitely a good move,” Logue said.

As a new contractor, the organization is tweaking the process to make sure it runs smoothly and makes financial sense.

Stone said she’s hired additional staff to cover the work. And the crew is driving a truck previously used to collect donations.

Initially, the two-person crew scheduled 15 stops a day for the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shifts. But Stone says they believe they can up the number to 25.

“Right now, it takes about two weeks to get out to a location, and we want that to be shorter,” Stone said.

Residents should wait until their scheduled pickup day to put items out on the curb, she added.

Habitat for Humanity tracks the location and what it collects and reports back to the city.

Mahoney said the city will use the data to evaluate the program and monitor what kind of waste residents throw out to determine if other recycling services are needed.

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